Research Briefing
By Elena Ares
3 March 2022

Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill

Summary
1
Background
2 The Bill
3 House of Lords proceedings
4 House of Commons Proceedingscommonslibrary.parliament.uk

Number 9423

Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill

Image Credits
Octopus by Alexandra Koch / image cropped. Licensed by Pixabay License –no copyright required.
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Contents
1

Background7

1.1

Animal sentience in EU legislation

7

1.2

Animal sentience and Brexit

7

1.3

Existing UK animal welfare legislation

8

1.4

What is animal sentience?

10

2

The Bill

12

General purpose of the Bill

13

Animal Sentience Committee

13

Transparency

14

Animals covered by the Bill

14

Extent and entry into force

15

2.1

Reaction to the Bill

15

2.2

EFRA Select Committee inquiry

16

3House of Lords proceedings

18

3.1

Second reading

18

3.2

Committee stage

21

3.3

Report stage and Third Reading

23

Cephalopods and decapod crustaceans

23

Religious slaughter

24

Third reading

25

4House of Commons Proceedings

26

4.1

Second Reading

26

4.2

Committee stage

27

Role of the Animal Sentience Committee

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill

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Summary
The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill would require the Government to set up
an Animal Sentience Committee to examine whether “the welfare of animals
as sentient beings” is considered in policy decisions.
The Bill is the Government’s response to concerns raised when it did nottranspose the recognition of animal sentience in the EU Treaty of Lisbon into
UK legislation, following Brexit.
The intention to legislate was set out in a statement by the Government inNovember 2017 and was followed by a consultation on a draft Bill in
December 2017 .
Following the consultation, the proposals were paused by Defra as
recommended by the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee inJanuary 2018. This was to allow “the problematic concepts” of animal
sentience included in the Bill to be better defined.
The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill [HL] was introduced in the House of Lords
on 13 May 2021.

What does the Animal Sentience Bill cover?
The Bill as introduced in the House of Commons following consideration in theHouser of Lords, recognises all vertebrate animals and some invertebrate
animals as sentient beings. Sentience is not defined in the Bill.
The Bill requires the Government to establish an Animal Sentience Committee(ASC). The ASC will be able to scrutinise and report on whether theGovernment is taking into account the adverse effect of any policy “on thewelfare of animals as sentient beings”. The ASC will not have an advisory
or enforcement role.
The Bill is short, consisting of six clauses split into two sections. The firstcovers the ASC and its role. The second section covers transparency,
definition of animal for the purposes of the Bill and its territorial extent.
The Bill was welcomed by animal welfare organisations. Concerns about the
implications for farming and activities, such as hunting and fishing, havebeen raised by some stakeholders.
An Environment Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Select Committee inquiry into
the Bill began in May 2021. The Committee has not yet published its report,

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) Billbut its Chair wrote to the Secretary of State raising some questions on how
the ASC will function. This includes whether members of the ASC will haveenough time to do their work. Will the ASC be able to publish reports without
requiring approval from Government. And will it have sufficient powers tofulfil its role effectively.

Passage through the House of Lords
During the passage of the Bill there were no successful Opposition
amendments. The Bill was amended by the Government to include
cephalopods molluscs (such as octopus) and decapod crustacea (such as
lobsters and crabs) in the definition of animals that are sentient, following areview of the evidence by the London School of Economics and Political
Science in November 2021.
Lords’ debates on the Bill raised concerns about the limited detail in the Billon the role of the ASC, and the broad scope of the Committee’s remit. The
Government responded by publishing ASC draft terms of reference. These also
included details of how the ASC will operate, and how appointments will bemade. The Government has said that animal welfare will not take precedence
over other considerations when formulating or implementing a particularpolicy.

Passage through the House of Commons
There were no amendments to the Bill during Second Reading and Committee
Stage in the House of Common. A number of opposition amendments weredebated and voted on during Committee but failed to pass. This included
amendments that would have added a definition of sentience in the Bill;
increased the scope of the ASC; and required the Government to publish andreport on an Animal Sentience Strategy.
Report and Third Reading of the Bill were due to take place in the House ofCommons on 7 March 2021 but was postponed.

Territorial extent
The Bill covers England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. However,it does not extend to the devolved competencies of the devolved
administrations, which are explicitly excluded in the Bill.

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1

Background

1.1

Animal sentience in EU legislation
Animal sentience is recognised but not defined in EU legislation. The 1997
Treaty of Amsterdam included a Protocol on protection and welfare ofanimals (PDF, 346KB) which stated the following:
DESIRING to ensure improved protection and respect for the welfare of animals
as sentient beings,
HAVE AGREED UPON the following provision which shall be annexed to theTreaty establishing the European Community,
In formulating and implementing the Community's agriculture, transport,internal market and research policies, the Community and the Member Statesshall pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals, while respecting
the legislative or administrative provisions and customs of the Member States
relating in particular to religious rites, cultural traditions and regional
heritage. 1

This principle was incorporated as an article into the Lisbon Treaty, signed in
2007, with a small amendment. Article 13 provides that Member States should
pay full regard to the welfare requirement of animals when formulating
policies in certain areas “since animals are sentient beings”. It says:
In formulating and implementing the Union's agriculture, fisheries, transport,internal market, research and technological development and space policies,
the Union and the Member States shall, since animals are sentient beings, pay
full regard to the welfare requirements of animals, while respecting thelegislative or administrative provisions and customs of the Member States
relating in particular to religious rites, cultural traditions and regional
heritage. 2

1.2

Animal sentience and Brexit
The EU Withdrawal Act 2018 did not include provision to transfer the principle
in Article 13 of the Lisbon Treaty recognising animals as sentient beings into
UK legislation.

1

2

7

EU Commission, Treaty Of Amsterdam Amending The Treaty On European Union, The Treaties
Establishing The European Communities And Certain Related Acts, 1997
EU Commission , Treaty of Lisbon (2007/C 306/01), 2007

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill

This raised concerns among animal welfare campaigners as UK law, underthe Animal Welfare Act 2006, does not explicitly recognise the term although
it does acknowledge that animals can experience suffering and pain.
There were several unsuccessful amendments during the EU Withdrawal Bill
committee stage in the Commons, aimed at including the principle of animal
sentience in the Bill. The Government did not support this, stating instead that
it would consider how it might explicitly reflect the sentience principle inwider UK legislation.
Following the debate the Government made a statement setting out that“ and protections strengthened when we leave the EU”. The Government
announced on 12 December 2017 that it would be introducing legislation torecognise animal sentience and introduce tougher sentencing for animal
cruelty offences. At the same time it published a short three clause draft
Animal Welfare (Sentencing and Recognition of Sentience) Bill, explanatory
notes and consultation (536KB, PDF).
The consultation closed on 31 January 2018. Following scrutiny of the draft
Bill, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee recommended thatthe Bill be split to allow “the ‘problematic concepts in the existing Clause 1 [onanimal sentience] to be better defined”.
The Government published the consultation response on 7 August 2018,
announcing that it would legislate to increase the maximum sentences foranimal cruelty offences (290KB, PDF) as soon as parliamentary time became
available. On animal sentience, it said it would continue to work on the issue
and intended to introduce any necessary legislation before the UK left the EU.
Further details can be found in the Commons Library briefing on Animal
sentience and Brexit.

1.3

Existing UK animal welfare legislation
There are several legislative instruments in the UK covering animal welfare.
Many of these implemented EU law, for example, the Welfare of Farmed
Animals (England) Regulations 2007, and the Welfare of Animals (Transport)(England) Order 2006, which continue to be in force.
In addition, the Animal Welfare Act 2006, which applies in England andWales, makes it an offence to cause unnecessary suffering to any animal.

Animal Welfare Act 2006
‘Animal’ is defined in Section 1 of the 2006 Act to include all (non-human)vertebrates and may be extended by regulation to include invertebrates on
the basis of scientific evidence that “animals of the kind concerned arecapable of experiencing pain or suffering”. While the legislation does not

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill

specifically mention the word ‘sentient’, the Explanatory Notes for Section 1
mention that the Act applies to vertebrate animals as they are “currently the
only demonstrably sentient animals”.
Section 2 sets out what is considered a “protected animal” under the Act: “if it
is of a kind which is commonly domesticated in the British Islands; it is under
the control of man whether on a permanent or temporary basis, or it is notliving in a wild state”.

Other definitions
Some campaign groups use a broader definition of sentience. For example
Compassion in World Farming has stated that ‘sentient beings’ means thatanimals “can feel pain and suffer; learn from experience; make choices; feeljoy, fear or misery; and enjoy the company of others”. 3
Wild mammals are protected from acts of cruelty under the Wild Mammals(Protection) Act 1996. This makes it an offence to mutilate, kick, beat, nail orotherwise impale, stab, burn, stone, crush, drown, drag or asphyxiate any
wild mammal with intent to inflict unnecessary suffering, unless under the
exclusions set out in the Act, which include:•

an act of mercy•

killing a wild mammal which has been injured or taken lawfully while
hunting•

doing anything which is authorised by or under any enactment;•

if the act was done by means of any snare, trap, dog, or bird lawfully
used for the purpose of killing or taking any wild mammal; or•

the lawful use of any poisonous or noxious substance on any wild
mammal. 4

ScotlandThe Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 is similar to thelegislation in England and Wales, in as much as the Act does not explicitly
mention animal sentience. However, section 48 in the part II of the Act statesthat “references to suffering include physical or mental suffering”.
The Scottish Government set up the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission
through regulations in 2020. Its remit includes considering how the welfare
needs of sentient animals are being met by devolved policy; and possible
legislative and non-legislative routes to further protect the welfare of sentientanimals.

3
4

9

CIWF, The Lisbon treaty: recognising animal sentience, 1 December 2009
Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) BillAs part of its work, the Commission published a review of Scottish
Government activity affecting the welfare of animals, as sentient beings inNovember 2021. The stated aim of the Commission was to partly replace therequirement in Article 13 of the Lisbon Treaty to pay full regard to animal
welfare.

Northern Ireland
The Welfare of Animals Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 includes similar provisions
to those in the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

1.4

What is animal sentience?
The UK Government asked the then Farmed Animal Welfare Commission(FAWC), which is now the Animal Welfare Committee (AWC), to advise on therecognition of sentience following the decision to legislate to recognise it in
UK law.
The FAWC’s response was published in March 2018. The Committee’s view wasthat “defining sentience is essential”. It set out its proposals for defining it inlegislation:
Our view is that if a definition for the sentience of non-human animals is usedin the context of this legislation, it should be along the following lines:
Sentience is the capability to experience pain, distress and harm.
Whilst this does have an emphasis on the negative state, it is by definition aconscious experience and lends itself to the inclusion of further animal groups
as the responses can be demonstrated in research. 5

The Scottish Animal Welfare Commission, which advises the Scottish
Government on an animal welfare, defined animal sentience in a statement
on 10 February 2021 as “the ability to have physical and emotional
experiences, which matter to the animal, and which can be positive andnegative”.
The Government also commissioned The London School of Economics andPolitical Science (LSE) to review the evidence of sentience in cephalopod
molluscs and decapod crustaceans. The review published in November 2021
and includes a more extensive explanation of animal sentience based on
feelings:
Sentience […] is the capacity to have feelings. Feelings may include, forexample, feelings of pain, distress, anxiety, boredom, hunger, thirst, pleasure,
warmth, joy, comfort, and excitement […] A sentient being is “conscious” inthe most elemental, basic sense of the word. It need not be able to consciously

5

10

FAWC, Animal Sentience, 16 March 2018

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) Billreflect on its feelings, as we do, or to understand the feelings of others: to besentient is simply to have feelings.
In discussions about animal welfare, sentience is sometimes defined in anarrower way, as specifically referring to the capacity to have negative,
aversive feelings. The UK’s Animal Welfare Committee (formerly the Farm
Animal Welfare Committee) has defined sentience as the capacity toexperience pain, distress, or harm (AWC, 2018). 6

The LSE report notes that while the AWC leaves out the positive side ofsentience it does focus on the type of feeling “that raises the most severe typeof ethical concern”. The authors set out the reasoning for focusing on
negative feelings in their own report:
We will focus in practice on the negative side of sentience, owing to the special
significance of feelings of pain, distress or harm for animal welfare law (asemphasized, for example, in the Animal Welfare Act 2006). 7

The Bill, as introduced in the House of Commons, does not include a definitionof sentience. Lord Beynon, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, explained why during
the Lords committee stage:
We decided not to include a fixed definition of sentience in the Bill, because“sentience” is a term heavily influenced by the latest scientific understanding
and so risks becoming rapidly out of date. Our scientific understanding ofsentience has come a long way in recent years and will continue to evolve.
It is not necessary to define sentience in statute for the Bill to work. We allrecognise that animals are sentient. Accordingly, their welfare needs should
be properly considered in government policy-making. There is no need to makeit more complicated than that. 8

6

7

8

11

LSE Review of the Evidence of Sentience in Cephalopod Molluscs and Decapod Crustacean,November 2021
LSE Review of the Evidence of Sentience in Cephalopod Molluscs and Decapod Crustacean,November 2021
HL Deb c287GC 6 July 2021

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill

2

The Bill

The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill (HL) was introduced in the House of Lords
on 13 May 2021. A briefing on the Bill as introduced was published by theHouse of Lords Library. The Parliament Bill page includes an updated
Explanatory Memorandum and Delegated Powers Memorandum for the Bill.
The Bill would allow for an Animal Sentience Committee to be created. Its
functions would relate to “the effect of government policy on the welfare ofanimals as sentient beings”. 9
The Bill is short, consisting of six clauses split into two sections. The firstcovers the Animal Sentience Committee (ASC) and its role. The second section
covers transparency, definition of animal for the purposes of the Bill and theBill’s territorial extent.
During the passage through the House of Lords there were no successful
Opposition amendments. The Government amended the Bill at report stage toinclude any cephalopod mollusc and any decapod crustacean to thedefinition of animal in the Bill. This followed the conclusions of the LSE Reviewof the Evidence of Sentience in Cephalopod Molluscs and Decapod
Crustaceans.

1 Cephalopods and decapod crustaceans
Defra commissioned an independent external review by LSE of the available
scientific evidence on sentience in certain invertebrates. These were decapod
crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters; and the cephalopod class, which
includes octopus, cuttlefish and squid. The review findings would informwhether they should be included within the scope of the Bill.
The LSE Review of the Evidence of Sentience in Cephalopod Molluscs andDecapod Crustaceans was published in November 2021.
The report recommended that all cephalopod molluscs and decapod
crustaceans be regarded as sentient animals for the purposes of UK animal
welfare law. They should be counted as animals for the purposes of theAnimal Welfare Act 2006 and included in the scope of any future legislation
relating to animal sentience. The review also made recommendations on
specific commercial practices.

9

12

Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill (HL) 13 May 2021

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill

The Bill, as set out in this section, is as introduced in the House of Commons(86.4KB, PDF) on 14 December 2021, following Lord’s stages.

General purpose of the BillAs set out in Explanatory Notes to the Bill, the legislation will apply to bothwild and domesticated animals. They summarise the Bill’s purpose as follows:
The Bill recognises that animals are sentient beings and creates anaccountability mechanism which aims to ensure that UK Ministers have due
regard to their welfare needs when formulating and implementing government
policy.
An appropriate committee will be established to assess and report on the
animal welfare impacts of policy decisions that have been taken, or which may
be taken, by the Government. The relevant Secretary of State will be required
to lay a written statement before Parliament responding to any such report. 10

The Bill does not include a definition of sentience, although the Explanatory
Notes do refer to the EU Commission’s Animal Welfare Strategy 2012–2015
statement that sentience means that animals are “capable of feelingpleasure and pain.”
The territorial extent of the Bill is England, Wales, Scotland and Northern
Ireland. However, it does not apply to any matter that is within thecompetence of the devolved administrations.

Animal Sentience Committee
Clauses 1-3 of the Bill cover the establishment of the ASC, together with its
powers to produce reports and the requirement that the Government
responds to these.
Clause 1 requires the Secretary of State to establish and maintain the ASC
and appoint its members. The Secretary of State will determine the terms of
any appointment, including the length and remuneration for any appointment(as set out in the Explanatory Notes).
There is no deadline for setting up the ASC set out in the Bill. There are also nofurther details on the membership or functioning of the ASC.
Clause 2 sets out the powers of the ASC to produce a report on any
government policy that has been implemented or is being formulated. The
ASC will be able to examine whether the Government has “had all due regard”
to the ways in which any policy may have “an adverse effect on the welfare of

10

13

Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill [HL] Explanatory Notes 14 December 2021

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill

animals as sentient beings”. The ASC may also recommend that theGovernment takes certain actions, to ensure any future policy changes haveconsidered animals defined as sentient in the legislation.
The Explanatory Notes provide further detail of how the ASC is expected tocarry out its function, including issuing opinions and scrutinising how animal
welfare is considered in policy:
The Committee will be able to issue an opinion in relation to any central
government policy. In order to produce a report on this question, theCommittee will need to scrutinise the manner in which the policy in question is
being, or has been, formulated or implemented and assess the type and levelof consideration that the Government is giving, or has given, to any potential
adverse effects of the policy on the welfare of animals as sentient beings.

The Explanatory Notes also make clear that having regard for the welfare ofsentient animals does not mean “that the welfare of sentient animals shouldtake precedence over other considerations when formulating or implementing
a particular policy”. 11
The clause defines what is meant by polices of the UK Government. The Bill
does not extend to the devolved competencies of the governments of Wales,
Scotland or Northern Ireland, which are explicitly excluded.
Clause 3 requires the Government respond to any ASC report in Parliament
within three months of its publication.

Transparency
Clause 4 of the Bill includes the ASC within the scope of the Public Records
Act 1958 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Animals covered by the Bill
Clause 5 defines the meaning of an animal in the Bill as:(a) any vertebrate other than homo sapiens,(b) any cephalopod mollusc(c) any decapod crustacean

1114Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill [HL] Explanatory Notes 14 December 2021

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) BillThe clause allows further invertebrates to be added by the Secretary of Statethrough regulations laid before Parliament and approved by both Houses (theaffirmative procedure).

Extent and entry into force
Clause 6 of the Bill extends the legislation to England, Wales, Scotland andNorthern Ireland. This clause enters into force on the date of Royal Assent.
The rest of the Bill will come into force through regulations when the
Secretary of State appoints through a statutory instrument.
This clause also includes a standard privilege amendment, relating to financeprovisions, included when bills are introduced to Parliament in the House ofLords.

2.1

Reaction to the BillA Better Deal for Animals Coalition includes over fifty animal protectiongroups who have campaigned for a law to recognise animal sentience. It has
produced a number of briefings on the Bill during the different stages in theHouse of Lords.
In a briefing for the Bill in December 2021, the Coalition welcomed the
addition of cephalopods and decapod molluscs to the Bill and the publicationby the Government of the Terms of Reference of the ASC. It went on to suggest
some further measures.
UK Centre for Animal Law (A-LAW) welcomed the Bill but raised concerns inevidence to the EFRA Select Committee that the ASC would not have any
statutory duty and complete discretion as to when and how to exercise any
powers. It also raised concerns that there were:No safeguards in the Bill in relation to independence, expertise, or powers of
the Animal Sentience Committee (‘the ASC’) since the detail is lacking.
We would usually expect the constitution of a statutory committee to be set
out in a schedule to the legislation, if not included within the body of it orprovided for by Statutory Instrument. 12

The Countryside Alliance’s view when the Bill was first published was that inprinciple, “recognising sentience and holding the Government to account inthis area was not a bad thing”. However, it expressed some reservations overthe difference between ‘welfare’ and ‘rights’:

A-LAW, Submission to the EFRA Committee by the UK CENTRE FOR ANIMAL LAW (A-LAW) on the
Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill inquiry, 4 July 2021
1215

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill

Of course, recognition of sentience and the welfare needs of animals is not thesame as recognising that animals have rights, in the sense that human beings
have rights, and it is important that animal welfare is not confused with animal
rights. The inclusion of sentience in UK law must not damage the ability offarmers and land managers to manage wildlife humanely and responsibly. 13

The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) and the Angling
Trust jointly expressed concerns about the potential impact of the Bill on“sustainable shooting and angling, leaving country sports vulnerable to thoseseeking a ban or severe curtailment”. 14

2.2

EFRA Select Committee inquiry
The Environment Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee launched an
inquiry into the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill on 28 May 2021. The
Committee set out the following terms of reference:
•

•

•
•
•

Will the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill ensure that animal sentience isproperly taken into account in both new and existing Government policy
in England?
Are there sufficient safeguards to ensure that the proposed Animal
Sentience Committee will be (a) independent (b) have the necessary
expertise and (c) have the necessary powers to be effective?
Are the proposed requirements on the Government to respond to an
Animal Sentience Committee’s report sufficient?
How does the proposed Animal Sentience Committee compare to similar
bodies, such as the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission?
Is the Government correct to limit the scope of the Bill to vertebrate
animals?

The Committee has not yet published its report, but it has published written
evidence submissions and held two evidence sessions on 19 July and 7
September 2021 on its website.
The Chair of the Committee, Neil Parish, wrote to the Secretary of State forEnvironment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice, setting out key findings
on 17 January 2021. He summarised the views of the Committee, who
generally welcomed the legislation, as follows:
We welcome the improvements that have been made since the 2017 draft
legislation, particularly the requirement for Ministers to respond to the ASC’sreports which should reduce the risk of vexatious judicial review
The new ASC will play a vital role ensuring that the Government takes accountof the welfare of sentient animals when formulating policy. However, having
the right people on the Committee with a depth of expertise in animal welfare
and related scientific knowledge will be essential if it is to produce high quality

13
14

16

Countryside Alliance, Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill 2021, 17 May 2021
BASC, BASC joins forces with Angling Trust on animal sentience, 16 June 2021

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill

reports that do justice to these important issues. Equally importantly, its Chair
and members will need to be operationally independent from Government andable to command respect across Whitehall. It must also have sufficient powers
and resources to undertake its work. 15

The Committee viewed the draft terms of reference for the ASC as “a welcome
step in the right direction” and set out some of the concerns raised bywitnesses. Firstly, whether ASC members will have enough time to do theirwork:
Given the sheer breadth of Government policies that the ASC might be
expected to review […] I ask that you commit to reviewing the timecommitment of members of the ASC after its first year in operation and toincreasing their hours if necessary. 16

On the ASC’s ability to publish a strategy and an annual report without
Government approval:
Witnesses were clear that allowing the ASC to publish a strategy and anannual report would improve transparency and inform all Government
departments of what will be expected of them when considering animal
sentience in their policy development. I would be grateful if you could
confirm that the ASC will be able to publish a strategy and an annual
report without requiring approval from Defra or any other part ofGovernment. 17

Finally, on whether the ASC will have sufficient powers to carry out its role andensuring it is able to gather information as needed:
Witnesses were concerned about whether the ASC would have sufficient
powers and authority to gather information from departments, and how it
would be notified during the policy formulation process in a timely fashion […]During the debate on the Bill, I ask that you set out how you will ensure the
ASC is able to gather the information it needs to do its job and how Defra
will support the ASC to ensure its reports are taken seriously by otherdepartments. 18

15

16

17

18

17

Efra Select Committee, Letter from Chair to SoS George Eustice on the Animal Welfare (Sentience)
Bill, 17 January 2021
Efra Select Committee, Letter from Chair to SoS George Eustice on the Animal Welfare (Sentience)
Bill, 17 January 2021
Efra Select Committee, Letter from Chair to SoS George Eustice on the Animal Welfare (Sentience)
Bill, 17 January 2021
Efra Select Committee, Letter from Chair to SoS George Eustice on the Animal Welfare (Sentience)
Bill, 17 January 2021

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill

3

House of Lords proceedings

Second Reading of the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill (HL) took place on 16
June 2021. Committee stage took place on 6 and 21 July 2021. Report stage
took place on 6 December 2021 and third reading on 13 December 2021.

3.1

Second Reading
Lord Benyon, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department forEnvironment, Food and Rural Affairs, introduced the Bill for second reading by
setting out its three main provisions. Firstly:
A recognition in law that any animal with a spine—any vertebrate—issentient. Sentience is about animals having feelings, both positive andnegative, such as pain or joy. 19

The Bill, as presented originally in the Lords included the power to extend thisrecognition to any invertebrate species in future. Later, at report stage (seesection 3.3 below,) the Government amended the Bill to include a number of
invertebrate species, including cephalopods. 20
Secondly, the proposal in the Bill to establish an Animal Sentience Committee(ASC) which will be:
Tasked with reporting on whether individual central government policy
decisions have paid all due regard to their effect on the welfare of animals as
sentient beings.
The animal sentience committee will have the right to roam across all central
government departmental policy decisions. This includes decisions relating topolicy formulation and policy implementation.
The committee’s findings will be made public and its reports will makerecommendations. 21

The third provision is a requirement on ministers to respond to ASC reports
through written statements to Parliament. 22

19
20
21
22

18

HL Deb c1899 16 June 2021
HL Deb c1750 6 December 2021
HL Deb c1899 16 June 2021
HL Deb c1899 16 June 2021

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill

Lord Benyon was explicit that the proposals were not aimed at directing
Government policy, rather to assist Parliament to hold the Government toaccount:
It is important to understand what the Bill is and what it is not. It is intended toembed consideration of animal welfare into the policy decision-making
process. It does not change existing laws, nor does it dictate to Ministers which
decisions they should ultimately make.
It is for Ministers to make those calls, taking all relevant considerations into
account, and for Parliament to hold them to account. The Bill is designed tosupport Parliament in doing so. 23

Baroness Young of Old Scone, welcomed the Bill but called for further clarity
on the powers of the ASC, stating:It needs independent powers and adequate resources to fund a secretariat
and to have the ability to call witnesses, commission research and have accessto documents. 24

She also called for the Government to create and maintain an animal
sentience strategy and, like many other Peers, for the Bill’s to be extended
beyond vertebrate animals. 25
Lord Trees, co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare
generally welcomed the Bill, although he raised the issue of possible
unintended consequences. On the Bill itself he said:
The Bill is very wide-ranging, covering all policy without exception, and it also
implicitly includes wild animals. In placing obligations on government, the Billwill complement our excellent Animal Welfare Act, which places obligations on
individual keepers of animals. 26

Several Peers expressed their general support for the Bill. 27 However,Baroness Jones of Moluscombe, was critical of the ‘ineffective’ premise of theBill and its limited scope:
No matter how well-meaning, how well resourced or how hard-working thecommittee is, the Government can simply ignore it and do their own thing. Just
as they did with climate change and carbon credits, they can do with animal
welfare and animal sentience.
There is a lot that needs to be improved in this Bill, but it almost feels like
wasted effort, because I know that the whole premise of the Bill is designed tomake it completely ineffective. This is reflected in the Long Title, which seems
designed to frame the scope of the Bill so tightly around the animal sentience

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committee that it would not be possible to table amendments that were notfocused on the committee. 28

Lord Etherton raised the question of whether the Bill had implications forreligious slaughter. 29 This was raised by several Peers. 30
Lord Herbert was concerned that the Government would be “subcontracting
decisions to bodies that are accountable neither to us nor to the public but
can be pressured by outside interests”. 31
Baroness Mallalieu, president of the Countryside Alliance, referred to themotivation behind the Bill as “gesture politics” and believed that there were
better ways of getting animal sentience on the statute book. 32
Concerns were also raised by speakers about the limited detail in the Bill, thebroad scope of the ASC remit,33 and that this remit was also retrospective
allowing it to examine existing policies.34 Baroness Deech considered the Bill
unsatisfactory because “it is unnecessary; it duplicates existing protections; itis retrospective; and it is filled with uncertainty”. 35
Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville, speaking for the Liberal
Democrats, called the Bill “short but extremely important”, ensuring animal
sentience remains enshrined in law after leaving the EU. 36 She, like many,called for an animal welfare strategy and views on the role and resourcing of
the ASC:The essentials to inspire confidence in the ASC’s deliberations and outcomes
will not necessarily come from the number of representatives, nor just who or
which organisations are represented on the committee. Instead, confidence
will come from ensuring a wide range of expertise among the membership. It
will come from complete transparency around the recruitment process and in
all the workings of the committee. 37

Baroness Hayman of Ullock, speaking for the Labour Party, particularly
welcomed some aspects of the Bill:
The Bill covers all departments and that, by implication, it covers wild animals
as well as those under the control of man, as wild animals should also beprotected from harm by man. 38

She also questioned whether the ASC should also be able to recommend
policy that brings about positive impacts on animals, instead of just
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Animal Welfare (Sentience) Billaddressing negative impacts and called for the scope of the Bill to beextended beyond vertebrate animals. 39
She said Labour would also be seeking guarantees on the membership of theASC, transparency in recruitment and its genuine independence. The ASC
should also have a mandate with a clear duty to review all policies that fellwithin defined criteria.40

3.2

Committee stage
The Bill passed its committee stage unamended and without divisions.
Clause 1 was debated and agreed in Grand Committee on 6 July 2021. During
the debate a number of amendments to the Bill were proposed andwithdrawn without division, including ones that would have:
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Required the ASC to be set up through regulations. 41
Limited the scope of the ASC to areas that were defined in Article 13 of
the Lisbon treaty. 42
Excluded from the remit of the ASC any policy related to theadvancement of medical science. 43
Set out the required expertise of members of the ASC and required theGovernment to provide resources for the committee. 44
Allowed the ASC to call witnesses, required the Government to inform the
ASC of any relevant polices and placed a duty on the Secretary of Stateto prepare an Animal Sentience Strategy.45
Required the ASC to carry out its functions “respecting legislative or
administrative provisions and customs relating to religious rites, cultural
traditions and regional heritage”. 46
Barred anyone connected to organisations promoting animal rights
being appointed to the ASC. 47
Included a definition of animal sentience in the Bill as “means thecapacity to have feelings, including pain and pleasure, and implies alevel of conscious awareness”. 48

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) BillIn response to the many queries regarding the ASC’s role and function the
Minister committed to sharing draft terms of reference with Peers before
Report stage of the Bill. 49

2 ASC Terms of reference
The ASC draft terms of reference were deposited in the Lord’s and Commons
Library on 5 January 2021. They include details of the proposed terms ofreference for the ASC, together with details of how the Committee will operate,
including how appointments will be made.
It also sets out details of how it will work with the Animal Welfare Committee(AWC) and within the Animal Welfare Committee of Expertise (AWCE). This
expert advisory body, supported by Defra, will work across the devolved
administrations, and will include the AWC, the ASC, the Zoo Experts Committee(ZEC) and the Welfare at Killing Committee (WAK), which is a subcommittee ofthe AWC.
The Minister also explained the reason for not including a definition ofsentience the Bill as being that term was heavily influenced by the latest
scientific understanding and so would risk becoming rapidly out of date. 50
On religious slaughter Lord Benyon stated the following:
The Government would much prefer that animals were stunned before
slaughter but we respect the traditions and the culture of communities thatwill not change that. 51

The remainder of the Bill was debated and agreed in Grand Committee on 20
July 2021. During the debate a number of amendments to the Bill were
proposed and withdrawn without division, including ones that would have:
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Limited the scope of the ASC to new rather than existing polices. 52
Removed the discretion of the ASC to produce reports on polices, instead
requiring it to do so. 53
Required the ASC to seek the consent from Secretary of State to produce
a report. 54
Required the ASC to submit an annual report to Parliament. 55
Required the ASC’s recommendations not be detrimental toconservation, biodiversity and other matters. 56

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Lord Benyon responded to amendments aiming to limit the scope of the AWC
to future policies as follows:
I agree that we would gain little from a committee that devotes its energies toreopening old debates. We want a committee that improves the policy
decision-making and implementation process now and in future.
However, policy is not a static thing. This afternoon, we have heard
descriptions of policies that go back centuries. Policy is always being
reassessed, reinterpreted and, above all, implemented. It would be difficult topin down a working definition of established policy, particularly in statute, that
does not shut the committee out of a number of areas where its scrutiny would
be most valuable. 57

3.3

Report stage and Third Reading
Report Stage of the Bill took place on 6 December 2021. There were three
Government amendments during Report. One amended the definition ofanimal in the Bill and two minor amendments clarified meaning in the Bill.
There were no opposition amendments.

Cephalopods and decapod crustaceans
The Bill was amended by the Government, without division, to include
cephalopod molluscs and decapod crustaceans to the definition of animal in
Clause 5. This followed the conclusions of the LSE Review of the Evidence ofSentience in Cephalopod Molluscs and Decapod Crustaceans commissioned
by Defra and published in November 2021.
When proposing the amendment Lord Benyon set out the reasons for theamendments:
The review considered the findings of around 300 scientific studies, using a setof criteria based on brain structure, nervous system complexity and testing foradaptive behaviour to assess whether these classes of invertebrate are
sentient. The report itself was subject to peer review.
The Government have given careful consideration to the contents of the final
report. We accept that there is strong evidence of the sentience of these
invertebrates. It is only right, therefore, that they are included in the provisionsof the Bill. That means that the animal sentience committee, once established,
may produce reports under Section 2 of the Bill in relation to the welfare of
cephalopod molluscs and decapod crustaceans. 58

He also explained the decision would not affect current polices, although it
may have future implications:

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However, I want to be clear that this amendment does not alter existinglegislation or policy. I have heard, for example, the concerns put to me byrepresentatives of the fishing sector, and I can assure this House that nothing
in this amendment, or indeed in the Bill, changes the rules governing theactivities of individuals or businesses.
Naturally, in due course, the Government may wish to consider whether it
would be appropriate to amend the scope of other animal welfare legislation
to include cephalopod molluscs and decapod crustaceans. While that is not
the question we are discussing today, I take the opportunity to assure yourLordships that any changes to existing laws would be subject to appropriate
parliamentary scrutiny, and we would consider carefully how we would engage
industry in their development. 59

There was support for the amendment across the House, including fromLabour and the Liberal Democrats. 60

Religious slaughter
There was one amendment that was pushed to a vote and disagreed during
Report. The amendment to Clause 2 would have required that:
Recommendations made by the Committee [ASC] must respect legislative or
administrative provisions and customs relating in particular to religious rites,
cultural traditions and regional heritage 61.

Baroness Deech, supporting the amendment, set out the reason for it as tomaintain provisions that exist in the Treaty of Lisbon, as it applied to the UK
before it left the EU:
Far be it from me to want to continue any European law, but this particularprovision did in fact mirror what was already the situation in this country. My
concerns if it is not enacted relate to medical research and religious traditions
in killing animals.
The Lisbon provision successfully kept issues out of court, and religious
minorities were content with it. Not to include this amendment is to open thedoor to vigorous disagreements over traditional practices and to more judicial
review—and if there is one thing this Bill was supposed to do, it was to corralthe committee and the Minister in policy issues. Muslim spokespersons arelikely to be as worried about halal as are the representatives of the far smaller
religious Jewish community. In the past, they have lived comfortably with the
Lisbon balancing factors, and we want this to continue. 62

In his response, Lord Benyon explained that decisions in this area would not
sit with the ASC:This amendment would require the animal sentience committee to have regard
to certain other matters of public interest, such as cultural traditions. It bears
repeating that the purpose of the committee is not to make value judgments
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Animal Welfare (Sentience) Billon the weight that animal welfare should be given in relation to other mattersof public interest. That is for Ministers, who are rightly held to account in
Parliament. 63

On division the amendment was rejected with 25 votes for and 74 against. 64

Third reading
Third Reading of the Bill took place on 13 December 2021. During the debate
Lord Benyon summarised how the ASC would work once in place:
I believe it will oil the wheels of the policy-making process. We have indicatedthat the committee should look to produce six to eight reports a year. It will
have to select policy decisions very carefully, and the administrative burdenthat is created will be light.
Furthermore, the committee is not empowered to make recommendations on
the substance of policy decisions; its recommendations will be strictly limited
to consideration of the animal welfare impacts of the policy decision. 65

During the debate, Lord Herbert of South Downs, Chair of the Countryside
Alliance tabled an amendment to add the following to the Bill:
That this House, while strongly supporting measures to improve animal
welfare, regrets the way in which the proposed Animal Sentience Committee isto be established. 66

He explained his concerns as follows:
I feel strongly that animals must be treated properly but, whatever the goodintentions of those promoting the Bill, I fear that it is not a wise measure asdrafted. In fact, if we take a step back, it is actually an incredible measure. It
seriously proposes that the effect of any government policy on the welfare ofanimals may be considered by an unfettered statutory committee and that
Ministers must respond to that committee’s reports. 67

Several Peers spoke in support of the amendment raising their various
concerns about the Bill. The amendment was no supported by the Liberal
Democrats or by Labour, or the Minister, and withdrawn without division. 68

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4

House of Commons Proceedings

Second Reading of the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill took place in the Houseof Commons on 18 January 2022. The Bill was examined in Committee during
two sessions on 10 February 2022. Report and Third Reading of the Bill were
due to take place on 7 March 2022 but were postponed.

4.1

Second Reading
Second Reading of the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill took place in the Houseof Commons on 18 January 2022
On introducing the Bill, in addition to summarising the proposed legislation,
the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs George Eustace
explained what the Bill would or would not do. Committee reports will not
impose any requirements on the Government:
While its aim is to improve the policy and decision-making processes ofGovernment, the committee’s reports will not bind Ministers to any particular
course of action. Ministers will remain free to determine the right balance
between animal welfare and other important considerations. 69

The ASCs role will be to scrutinise how policy decisions are made rather thancritique Government decisions:
It is also important to understand that the Bill tasks the Animal Sentience
Committee with scrutinising the process by which Ministers arrive at policy
decisions. It is not there to tell Ministers what decisions they should make or to
critique those decisions. Instead, it is there to provide technical assessments of
how well a given Department obtained and assessed relevant evidence on the
animal welfare effects of the policy in question. 70

Speaking for the Opposition, Jim McMahon, set out Labour’s support for theBill but raised a number of concerns. He called for the Government to use theBill as an opportunity to address animal welfare concerns raised by thenegotiation of bilateral trade deals with countries such as Australia. 71 A
number of Opposition MPs also raised this issue. In addition, many referred tostrengthening legislation banning fox hunting with dogs. Ruth Jones stated:

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) BillWe will ask Ministers to work with us to strengthen the Bill and tackle theloopholes used by those who go hunting every Boxing Day and the outsourcingof animal cruelty triggered by the trade deals negotiated by this Government. 72

Labour also called for the Bill to be strengthened by requiring Ministers to:••

Put in place a cross-Government animal sentience strategy,
Report to Parliament on how Government policy is meeting any
strategy. 73I

In response to concerns raised by Caroline Lucas that the ASC’s proposed
remit only covered adverse effects on animals, the Secretary of State clarified
that an adverse effect as set out in the Bill could mean a failure to consider ormake “a change that would have a positive effect on the welfare ofanimals”. 74
In response to concerns raised by Jonathan Djangoly that the ASC assessmentof a policy could result in its judicial review of Government policy, theSecretary of State set out why this was not the case:…the obligation on a Minister [set out in the Bill] is to respond to the report
within three months, and that response can deal with any recommendation or
observation put forward by the committee. 75

4.2

Committee stage
The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill was examined in Committee during two
sessions on 10 February 2022. In addition, written evidence was received froma number of organisations. These were:
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Better Deal for Animals Coalition
RSPCA
Compassion in World Farming
Crustacean Compassion
Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust
Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation

The Bill was unamended by the Government in Committee, other than toremove the privilege amendment inserted by the Lords. This is standardpractice as explained in Erskine May.
There were six opposition amendments debated and put to a vote, none ofwhich were successful. They are summarised below in the order that they
were debated in the Committee:

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Amendment 5 would have removed the reference to the ASC only
examining policies for their “adverse” effect on animals. Kerry McCarthy
said this would allow the ASC to also identify positive effects. 76 The
Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Jo
Churchill, explained that in the Government’s view this was not necessary
because this was already possible:
The committee is not required to limit its consideration purely to the adverse
effect. By definition, it will consider both sides, but it is not necessary, for the
avoidance of doubt, […] the point that positive effects can be considered isreinforced in the committee’s draft terms of reference. 77•

Amendment 2 would have allowed the ASC consult with or request
information from government departments and other public bodies. It
would also have required these bodies to co-operate. In proposing theamendment Ruth Jones said it was important to ensure the committee
received the information needed to prepare its reports. 78 In a detailed
response, the Minister said that including the provision in the Bill could
open up the Government to judicial review:
While I would agree that it is key for the committee to have the necessary
information to do its job, placing an additional duty on Departments to provide
the committee with documents would just create additional grounds forjudicial reviews. If a Department or public body was seen not to fully comply
with the requests made by the Animal Sentience Committee, there would begrounds for a challenge.
The Bill has been carefully considered and worded to give meaningful effect tothe principle of animal sentience without getting tied up in legal challenges.
We want the committee to focus on current and future policy. 79•

Amendment 4 would have required the Secretary of State to consider
extending the Animal Sentience Committee to other public bodies, within
a year of passing the Act. The amendment aimed to address the concernthat the Bill does not extend to non-departmental public bodies such as
the Environment Agency and Natural England.80 The Minister rejected
the amendment:
By their nature, and relative to core Departments, non-departmental publicbodies operate at arm’s length from Ministers. Extending this committee’s
remit beyond central Government Departments would not be targeted and sowould not be in line with the aims of what we are trying to achieve. 81

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Amendment 3 would have required Ministers to respond to ASC reports
in an oral statement to Parliament rather than a written statement. In
response the Minister stated that it would not “be proportionate to clog

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Animal Welfare (Sentience) Billup the parliamentary timetable with an automatic debate on every single
report”. 82•

Amendment 6 to Clause 5 would have added a definition of sentience tothe Bill, which does not include one. The proposed definition was “thecapacity to have feelings, including pain, pleasure, hunger, thirst,
warmth, joy, comfort and excitement”.83 Kerry McCarthy argued that
including a definition would give the ASC a reference point when carryingout its work, and that would also highlight that sentience was not justabout feeling pain. 84 The Minister responded re-stating the Government
position that fixed legal definition would become out of date with time. 85•

New Clause 1 would have required the Secretary of State to produce ananimal sentience strategy, and report to Parliament on progress every
year. Daniel Zeichner proposed the amendment. The aim was to address
the view that the legislation as proposed was weaker than the EU
legislation it was aiming to replace:
The Bill places indirect responsibilities on Ministers; they must simply establish
and maintain a committee and lay written responses, rather than assuming
direct responsibilities on these matters, which is what we would like to see.
This is clearly an inadequate replacement for the duties and responsibilities
enshrined in article 13 of the treaty on the functioning of the European Union,
and that is what we seek to address through the new clause. 86

Without the amendment he expressed concerns that the ASC’s work
could end up being merely symbolic:
The new clause would place a duty on the Secretary of State to produce ananimal sentience strategy and to provide annual updates to Parliament on
progress against it. It would significantly improve the Bill by increasing the heftgiven to the Animal Sentience Committee and ensuring that its work does not,as I fear it might, end up being merely symbolic. 87

In response the Minister set out the Government’s position that a
strategy would remove the ASC’s independence and freedom to decide
where to focus its work:
A strategy in which Ministers set out policies that they want the committee toconsider would limit its ability to set its own agenda. It is vital to make surethat the committee is led by science and by experts, and that it has its own
ability to define sentience, if it wishes to, and to set its own agenda. 88

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Role of the Animal Sentience Committee
The ASC draft terms of reference were deposited in the Lord’s and Commons
Library on 5 January 2021. They include the proposed terms of reference for
the ASC and details of how the Committee will operate, including how
appointments will be made.
During the debate the Minister set out further detail of how the ASC would
carry out its role, in response to some of the issues raised.
The Minister clarified the respective roles of the Animal Welfare Committee
and the ASC:The Animal Welfare Committee will sit in an advisory capacity, while theAnimal Sentience Committee will sit in a scrutinising capacity. It is importantto remember that the two committees have very distinct roles 89

The Government expects the Committee to examine around six policy
decisions a year:
We expect the committee to focus on Government policy decisions that could
have a significant impact on animal welfare. As we have previously indicated,that is expected to be in the region of six individual policy decisions per year.
Given the breadth of government, the committee will need to be selective inwhat it scrutinises. 90

The ASC will be able to adopt its own working definition of sentience:
If Animal Sentience Committee wishes to adopt a working definition of“sentience”, it will be absolutely free to do so. One of the first acts of theScottish Animal Welfare Commission—a similar body, to which the hon.
Member for Edinburgh North and Leith alluded earlier—was to prepare its own
working definition of “sentience” 91

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